


what we learn from one another

by softshark



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Lazy Mornings, M/M, Very lightly though, Xenophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 20:54:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17732489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softshark/pseuds/softshark
Summary: “My most crucial lesson for you,” Finrod hmmmed, closing his eyes.... "Is that the most important thing in life is enjoyment. To do things because they spark joy, because they stimulate your mind and bring you pleasure."In which Finrod is a spoiled prince, and tries to impart the wisdom of leisure and simple hobbies on Balan, Balan thinks Finrod is a perfectly adequate enough hobby for him, and they both ponder the differences between their two races.





	what we learn from one another

**Author's Note:**

> Translation notes:  
> Meldaya - a term to refer to a lover.  
> Kelvar - animals, created by Yavanna.

Finrod ran a hand down his naked body, amused and sated. Rocking his foot back and forth, lost in thought.  
“Nòm, my king, aren’t you going to get out of bed?”  
Balan asked, amused.  
“Hmmmm?” Finrod looked up, with a smile, before defiantly flopping back, and burrowing himself back under the covers, peeking out so he could admire Balan from where he stood at the foot of the bed, getting ready and clothing himself.

 

“No. I think not. There’s nothing to do today, so why should I? Also I think you’re wearing far too many clothes and, oh, no, put that shirt down, don’t you dare put that on, come back here and lay with me.”  
It was a lazy morning in Nargothrond….. Finrod really saw no reason as to why Balan was so eager to remove himself from the warmth and leisure of bed when there was nothing in particular for them to have to do. Balan laughed, “My king… you are far too lazy.”  
“I am not, I am just more judicious than you about when to excise energy and when to relax…..”

“I am unaccustomed to it,” Balan murmured, leaning against the post of their bed, looking at Finrod softly, thoughtfully. “I have lived my whole life getting up every morning, having work to do.” He ran his hand over the delicate, luxurious texture of their bedding. “Unaccustomed to a bed so comfortable that it aches almost to leave.”  
Finrod extended his arms more insistently, a bit like a child demanding to be picked up, and Balan relented in his resistance to the call, sliding in to them happily.  
Finrod nuzzled his nose in to Balan’s beard.

“And you see… This is natural to me….” Finrod murmured, happily, “I spent the first and majority of the years of my life as a prince, waking and doing and going where and when I pleased, pursuing leisure and sleeping in soft beds.”  
“How different we are, my Nòm.” Balan laughed, kissing and nipping Finrod’s jaw gently.  
“Not so different as you think… The elves, too, began in rudimentary beginnings, we too had a great westward march. My grandfather himself was on it. My grandfather led it. The stories he told… They are much the same as yours, _meldaya_.”  
Finrod ran a hand over Balan’s cheek, through his beard, kissing his nose. “And I have lived it too…..”  
“The ice….” Balan murmured.

“Yes,” Finrod murmured, pressing their faces together, before pulling back with a smile, “We are not so different, we have many things in common, and we together are the Children of Illúvatar, two halves of one whole. I believe that with all my heart, _meldaya_. We are the same in many ways, and our differences are what make us great, better than we are alone. And the more trivial differences,” Finrod said, pulling on the hair of Balan’s beard, “are quite enjoyable, in their own way.”

Balan laughed, “You are always so fascinated by my body hair. I wonder, do you not find it repellent, or at least strange?”  
Finrod frowned, pulling back, “No, why would I? Do you find my hairlessness repellent or strange?”

“No, my Nòm, of course not. But hair gets filthier far more easily than flesh, so it is on our bodies as well. I am unperturbed by your lack of hair, of course, but I wonder, do you not find it bestial? For before you encountered men, the only thing you have known to have hair across all their body are animals.”

“That is not true,” Finrod said, flatly. “The Naugrim have body hair, quite a bit more body hair than men do, and we do not find it disgusting. We found it odd, but it is the natural way of how they are. Why should we question it? Thus, that also means that of all the creatures that speak with words, the Eldar alone lack hair on their body. That makes us the strange ones.” He pointed it.

Balan rolled off of Finrod on to his back, and Finrod moved to lean on his chest.  
“Always so observant and witty you are, my Nòm. This is true, but also I wonder, I hear you use the term “those that speak with words”, often. What do you mean by that?”  
Finrod hummed, “When first the Quendi awoke in Cuiviénen, there was much we had to ponder. For we did not know what we were, or what the nature of being and existing was. We observed the kelvar, and knew we were like them. For our hearts beat, and we bled, and ate; but we knew in a way we were different. We realized the difference between they and ourselves was that we speak with words. We may express ourselves and understand one another through sounds we produce. It is how we knew that the Atani, and the Naugrim, were like ourselves and not the kelvar, even if you do have hair like them.” Finrod teased, tugging at some of Balan’s hair. “You express, like us. You can communicate your thoughts and feelings, and you have the desire to create.”

Balan huffed a soft laugh, “I do not think we Men will ever think so well as the Nòmin, we are simple minded.”

“That is not true. You are newer, there was a time when first we began that our drives, too, were simpler, and our knowledge and wisdom more limited. We had fewer tools and intellectual resources than we do now. We learned how to create and were taught about the world that is from the Valar. And now we shall pass that wisdom on to you in our turn, teach you as the Valar taught us. Wisdom and knowledge are learned. The race of Men… You shall grow great one day, great as us, or the Naugrim, who learned what they know from Aulë. You are just at the beginning, my Balan.” Finrod said, kissing his knuckles with a giggle, then rubbing his thumb over them, before moving up to kiss him.

“I shall take your word for it then, I regret that I shall not live to see the day my people grow great as yours.” A frown fell across Finrod’s face, then, a heavy weight in his heart.  
“Your life cannot be that short,” Finrod murmured, helplessly, half-heartedly.  
They’d been over time and time again, and he knew that no matter how he tried to argue it, it would not change the reality. Balan told him that the lives of men were finite, even without the interference of blade or sickness. Finrod could not wrap his mind around this, but found it even more baffling when Balan had told him just how short they were. Finrod would have 40 more years with Balan, if he was lucky. A nothingness.

“Ah, forgive me, my star, I forgot it is… hard for you to hear about mortality, forgive me,” He dropped a barrage of kisses across Finrod’s chest, “Do not think of that, now, impart your wisdom on to me, instead.”  
“My most crucial lesson for you,” Finrod hmmmed, closing his eyes, and sighing. He had to convince himself not to ruin their morning with his relentless worrying about the remaining years of Balan’s life- sometimes when it weighed on him very heavily, he wept, like a child, and begged Balan to comfort him, to tell him things that would soften the blow….. But no, he would not make this morning one of those horrible incidences, “My most crucial lesson is that the most important thing in life is enjoyment. To do things because they spark joy, because they stimulate your mind and bring you pleasure. I intend to show you much of what I know, to discover what it is that brings you joy… And spend the rest of your life watching you pursue those things.”

Balan hmmmmed back at Finrod, moving to cup his jaw, “I already know one thing that brings me immense joy.” Parting Finrod’s lips with his own, he worked a hot lingering kiss on to them, eliciting a moan. “It’s a strange, pointy eared little creature with hair like a he sun and eyes like a crystal clear lake.”  
Finrod laughed, “ _That_ , is not what I’m talking about. Or rather, _I’m_ not what I was talking about. I was thinking more like hobbies, past times.”

“Oh, but trying to keep up with you and match your energy certainly takes enough time and effort to be considered a hobby, I think. I have no other time to pursue anything else, and, besides….” Balan’s eyes grew dark, and a smile curved over his face, “There are certainly things I can do with you that we Men might consider a delightful past time…. Things that, as you said in your own words, ‘bring pleasure.’”

 

Balan slid his hands down Finrod’s side, settling his thumbs on the inside of his thighs, and eliciting another gasp when Balan rubbed his face against the tender inside of his hip, the hair on his bird tickling him and scratching him just how Balan knew he liked.  
“Terrible,” Finrod gasped, breathlessly, the normal, perfectly even cadence of his voice disappeared in a high-pitched croaking. “Atani are wicked and they corrupt perfectly innocent conversations with… with…”  
Finrod moaned, as Balan put his mouth to better uses than what Finrod was currently using his for, but he had to pull back, then, with a laugh, “My Nòm, I highly resent the accusation that _I_ am more insatiably wanton than _you._ ”  
“If I am insatiably wanton,” Finrod said, laughing delightedly, “It is all your fault. Love making as a hobby is definitely something I learned from you.”


End file.
